Remain-backers openly mocked the suggestion of free trade – something the UK already has with countries in the European Union while a member – from an industry based in a town which voted by 70 per cent to leave the trading bloc.

But as the industry has said over and again – there is no great regret, only a desire to find a pragmatic way of getting past the challenges Brexit presents.

As Simon Dwyer, the spokesman for the Seafood Grimsby & Humber cluster group, said in the initial report, import charges on the produce the industry brings in could have a detrimental effect on the sector – especially given 90 per cent of it comes from overseas.

Seafood processing hubs in Germany and France, such as Bremerhaven and Boulogne-sur-Mer respectively, will be only too happy to undercut and pick-up the extra business should Grimsby businesses be forced to put up their prices after Brexit.

Simon Dwyer, from Seafood Grimsby & Humber, will be in Westminster next week to reiterate the industry's call for free trade status

It is for those reasons that the industry is making a concerted effort to lobby ministers so they understand the needs of the Humber’s food processors.

When representatives make their trip to London next Wednesday (November 22) to meet with Fishing Minister George Eustice, it will be their third trip to Parliament in the space of a month – and their second meeting with the minister.

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Mr Dwyer has already written to Mr Eustice, a Eurosceptic Cornish MP who formerly stood for UKIP, to outline the industry’s position on their vision for free trade status for seafood at the ports of Immingham and Grimsby after Brexit.

So what could this free trade status – or “exemption” from post-Brexit tariffs – look like?

The Prime Minister has signalled that she intends to pull Britain out of the single market after Brexit, meaning free trade rules between the UK and the remaining 27 member states will no longer be in place.

The fear after Brexit is that, to protect its own fishermen and seafood processing centres, the EU could slap high charges on seafood coming from Grimsby and the UK.

Free trade status for seafood at Immingham could boost worldwide imports at the port

Bestowing free trade status on seafood in the Humber could help eliminate that threat by convincing the EU to mirror the tariff-free stance at its own ports.

It would also making the likes of Immingham, which is already the UK’s largest port by tonnage, an even more attractive landing spot for international fish exporters, thanks to the lack of charges involved in docking in the estuary.

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This is all largely hypothetical at the moment as we don’t know what the final trading arrangements between the UK and EU will look like. The negotiations with Brussels have stalled, with trade talks yet to start.

That this is largely theoretical has not stopped the port industry from signalling its support.

Associated British Ports (ABP), the private company which operates the ports on both banks of the Humber, has publicly offered its backing to the concept of creating free ports on the east coast – a move which would extend free trade status beyond just fish.

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James Cooper, chief executive of ABP, urged the Government in September to consider establishing free ports on the east coast in order to abolish duties on imported raw materials (which would include seafood) or components used in manufactured exports.

He predicted the policy had the ability to “transform the nation’s ability to trade and export” and keep the Humber’s ports “competitive” in the “global marketplace”.

Fishing Minister George Eustice, pictured in Grimsby, will meet with seafood figures next Wednesday

Rishi Sunak, Conservative MP for Richmond (Yorkshire), has helped author a paper on creating free trade ports – 3,500 of which already exist across the world – and says they could bring prosperity back to northern areas such as the Humber.

Free trade ports already exist in the USA, in the major cities of Boston and Seattle.

Mr Sunak, a backbencher, argues such designation for ports could help boost trade and improve the economies in areas such as Grimsby and Immingham, which are listed in the top 25 per cent of the most deprived areas in the UK.

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The MP said: “Long before the phrase ‘Northern Powerhouse’ was ever dreamed of, the docks of the Humber were towering symbols of a region whose industrial ingenuity began a revolution that transformed the world.

“As Britain charts a course for Brexit, the government should give our ports the freedom to recapture their proud history as the engines of our economy.”

Mr Sunak has agreed to meet the seafood processing representatives when they are in Westminster next week.

The lobbying from local MPs has so far focused on the precise ask of the seafood processing industry.

Grimsby MP Melanie Onn

Northern Lincolnshire MPs plan to back up the sector’s call for free trade status during the meeting with Mr Eustice next week. Representatives from Young’s and Icelandic Seachill are expected to join Mr Dwyer and MPs for the sit down.

Melanie Onn , the Labour MP for Great Grimsby, said seafood had “a particular need for close consideration” during the trade talks with the EU due to “the perishable nature of the goods”.